The small Academy vessel, barely more than a Shuttle by Military standards, landed in the clearing with Terminus between it and the city.
Max, along with a wing of Corvette Class Mecha from the Regiment met them at the door to their ship, and Major Payne came out smiling at their caution.
"I like your instincts, but this group has been carefully vetted already. The most outspoken allies of the Empire were sent on a mission together, then we found ourselves all demoted to infantry soldiers and branded deserters. We borrowed this shuttle from the Academy's fleet after a short discussion with the Rebel Inquisitor who was piloting it, and well, here we are.
The Rebels obviously know who we are, and the Loyalists aren't going to believe that we didn't desert our planet so easily, so the only real option that we had was to divert and make a run for you out here in the middle of nowhere."
Her explanation made sense, so Max brought up the stolen vessel's flight logs. It was indeed being flown by a local inquisitor. Not someone grand and powerful like General Ming, the planetary version, loyal to the local government, not the Emperor directly.
Still, General Ming would be interested in this information, since it would help shed light on how deep the corruption went. There should have been someone from Imperial Command supervising all of the Inquisitors on Kepler Terminus, and it would be suspicious if they had never reported anything about the problems.
This wasn't the first incident of corruption on the planet either. General Tennant had fled the planet with them at the start of their career so that he could avoid their attempts to strip his mecha from him.
"Do you have the original data files for the Cadets?" Max asked.
"Right here. I made hard copies and a backup, in case something happened. The whole mission felt off, even before we left, but it wasn't like we could just ignore orders to deploy, since all these kids just graduated." Major Payne explained.
So they were fresh graduates. Max flipped through the information and found that they were mostly unremarkable, nobody from the Special Forces Class, but all qualified on the Line Mecha.
Two thousand trained Line Mecha Pilots would be a pretty significant fighting force if they could equip and deploy them, and with the System, most of the Reavers would want a bit of that action. Even Gamma Ranked Pilots were still well above the human average and valued by other nations.
[Terminus, open the cargo bay doors to the refugee area. We have a couple of thousand Pilot Candidates on this shuttle that I think might be a good match for Terminus.] Max ordered.
"If you bring everyone out, we can get them a proper meal, since I'm sure you've all been eating rations since you left. Once they are on Terminus we can discuss their future. There is a lot to explain about what has gone on here, but I would like to know how you knew to look for me here?" Max asked.
"That part was easy. I tried finding a safe harbor as soon as we took over the ship, and got ahold of a friend on Kepler Terminus Station. He told me that you had taken away a load of the loyalists, and what the Commander's names were.
From there it wasn't hard to put two and two together and hope that I hadn't actually come up with five. As soon as the Admiral answered my call I knew I was right. He was a frequent visitor to the Academy in the past, and I recognized his voice." Major Payne explained.
"Well then Major, welcome home. As much of it as we have brought with us." Max agreed.
They would have to get a voice changer installed for the Admiral if he was going to keep interacting with the incoming ships from Kepler. Who knew how many other people would recognize the likable old Ship's Captain?
Two thousand soldiers in Academy Uniform drew the attention of everyone on Terminus, and a lot of them came over to see what was going on, bringing loads of food from the Replicators, as requested.
A Reaver planet wasn't the sort of place they had expected Academy Cadets to make a layover, no matter how strange their mission was. It was only when they recognized the emblems as being from Kepler Terminus, whose civil war had just ended, that they understood why these Cadets were there.
They were so far from home that they couldn't turn around when the news made it to their ship. They didn't have the supplies to make it back, even if they trusted the broadcast.
[Someone post up the crew listings with real names on the Refugee board. If anyone in the city is looking for their kids, they should get an alert that someone with a matching name is here on Terminus.] Max ordered once everyone was aboard the Colony Ship.
"You have a rather evil smile on your face, Commander. Care to share?" Major Miller asked as he entered with the crew bringing the food.
"You know how Uncle Lu wanted to do some testing on the new Samurai Pattern Line Mecha, right? I think I just found us two thousand volunteers to join the mission." Max replied with a smile.
It was a tradition in the Regiment after all. They had all been transferred from their units without a clue, only to end up testing Uncle Lu's new Mecha designs for the foreseeable future. Recruiting a couple thousand more to the Regiment was just carrying on business as usual.
"Well, I guess we are a Mixed Mecha Regiment now. Should we tell Nico to make the procurement order, or should we wait until she comes running in to ask permission to do it?" Major Miller asked.
"I will tell Nico. She's likely excited to see Major Payne anyhow, so she will come here on her own." Max agreed, then waited for the elusive woman to appear.
